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Inflationary pressures that had heightened in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since 2003 have moderated in recent times. This paper studies the determinants of inflation in GCC, using an empirical model that includes domestic and external factors. Inflation in major trading partners appears to be the most relevant foreign factor. In addition, oil revenues have reinforced inflationary pressures through higher growth of credit and aggregate spending. In the short-run, binding capacity constraints also explain higher inflation in the face of higher government spending. Nonetheless, by targeting supply-side bottlenecks, the increase in public spending on capital is easing capacity constraints and will ultimately help to moderate price inflation. The results highlight the need to mitigate the pro-cyclical stance of fiscal policy to avoid exacerbating cyclical swings. Moreover, prioritizing fiscal spending to address structural bottlenecks should take priority to avoid inflationary pressures and ease capacity constraints towards reducing overdependence on oil activity.

The paper characterizes the main determinants of the medium-term current account balance for oil-exporting countries using dynamic panel estimation techniques. It includes a large number of oil-exporting countries and extends the specifications commonly used in the literature to include an oil wealth variable as well as a proxy for the degree of maturity in oil production. The results reveal that factors that matter in determining the equilibrium current account balance of oil-exporting counties are fiscal balance, oil balance, oil wealth, age dependency, economic growth, and degree of oil production-related imports.

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The paper studies the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic on African economies and household welfare using a top‐down sequential macro‐micro simulation approach. The pandemic is modeled as a supply shock that disrupts economic activities of African countries and then affects households’ consumption behavior, the level of their welfare, and businesses’ investment decisions. The macroeconomic dynamic general equilibrium model is calibrated to account for informality, a key feature of African economies. We find that COVID‐19 could diminish employment in the formal and informal sectors and contract consumption of non‐savers and, especially, savers. These contractions would lead to an economic recession in Africa and widen both fiscal and current account deficits. Extreme poverty is expected to increase further in Africa, in particular if the welfare of the poorest households grows at lower rates. We also use the macroeconomic model to analyze the effects of different fiscal policy responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic.